On 25 September 1890,[1] in his parish of Bong Bong in the Southern Highlands of NSW, the Rev William Ansdell Leech, an Anglican clergyman, formed a Ministering Children’s League (MCL) group from which the NSW Fresh Air League (FAL) would arise. Initially, the activity that gave rise to the FAL was Leech’s particular way of fulfilling the ideals of the MCL. It soon became apparent that providing holiday accommodation for poor children and families in a healthy mountainous environment was a ministry deserving of its own name.

William Ansdell Leech (1842-1895) was the eldest son of Rev John Leech, MA, of Cloonconra County Mayo, Ireland, and Mary nee Darley, daughter of William Darley of St John’s County Dublin.[2] Leech matriculated to Cambridge University in Lent of 1865 and was a Scholar at the University from 1866. He was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn on 6 November 1866, gained a BA in 1868, and was called to the Bar on 10 June 1870 as a Barrister-at-Law. Leech went on to be ordained deacon by the Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand (and appointed a curate of Palmerston North) in 1883, before being priested by the Bishop of Bathurst in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, in December of that same year.[3]

Travelling to New Zealand on the Dallam Tower

Leech’s first attempt to sail to New Zealand was not without incident for he travelled aboard the Dallam Tower which had left London on 11 May 1873, bound for Dunedin, New Zealand.[4] On 14 July, the ship met a ‘fearful hurricane’ and was dis-masted in latitude 46 degrees south and 70 degrees east. The vessel was at the mercy of the storm for some 14 hours after which the hurricane abated. Without a mast the ship was helpless, but after 11 days the Cape Clear, a cargo ship, came to their assistance and took off some of the  Dallam Tower’s passengers who were in ‘a most forlorn and destitute condition. Their money, letters of credit and introduction, clothing and other necessaries gone.’[5] As one passenger remarked, they were fortunate not to have lost their lives:

But it was a mysterious Providence that sent the Cape Clear to our help. Had it not been for the distressing loss of two of their number we should never have seen her. One of the apprentices on the previous day had fallen from the rigging, and another in a noble but hopeless attempt to save him, went overboard after him. The ship delayed her course for several hours, while a boat was sent in a vain search for these poor fellows. Thus it was that she came up with us at the dawn of morning, otherwise they would have passed us in the night without seeing us.[6]